hurt, ( byler )

1.3

july 21, 1985 — continued.
will was confused as he walked towards the front door, where frantic knocking was sounding. will was expecting the day to himself—both his mom and his brother were working and his other friends had plans. will didn't mind though, he was happy to draw and watch movies the entire day.

he unlocked the door and opened it, revealing a crying mike wheeler. the boy half-collapsed into will's arms, sobbing.

"mike, hey," will said softly, pulling him over to the couch. "hey, what's wrong?"

"e-el b-broke up with me a-and we had a huge argument and th-then she broke my wrist b-but i was being a total fucking asshole so i d-deserved it," he cried, tightly gripping the back of will's shirt as they hugged.

"shit, mike!" will cast his eyes to mike's hands, where, sure enough, one of his wrists was bent at a strange angle. "we have to call your mom!"

"i-i know." mike gritted his teeth, obviously in pain. will stood up.

"come on, mike! that looks like a bad break!" will walked over to the phone hanging on the wall. mike was following closely behind. will dialled the phone number that he knew of-by-heart and listened to it ring.

"hello, this is karen wheeler speaking," mike's mom answered.

"hi, mrs wheeler. it's me, will."

"oh! hi, will! are you calling for mike? i'm afraid he went to el's hou—"

"i know. he's actually at my house, now. he turned up with a broken wrist," will explained, listening to mrs wheeler gasp on the other end.

"his wrist is broken?! how the hell did it happen?" karen stressed.

"i'm not sure. i'll put him on the phone." will removed the phone from his ear and handed it to mike. mike grabbed it with his good hand and put it to his ear.

"h-hi, mom," he sniffled. "kind of... well—uh, uhm-" will could tell mike was trying to think up an excuse. "o-on the way to will's house i, uh, i fell over—what? no, no, i, uh, landed on my wrist weird and it hit the ground really hard."

will awkwardly stood back, listening to mike talk to his mother. "yeah," mike said, shifting uncomfortably in pain. "okay. see you soon." he hung up the phone and put it on the wall. "she's coming to pick us up right now."

"us?"

mike blushed. "y-yeah, i mean, if you want to come."

will smiled softly. "of course."

within five minutes, karen wheeler was pulling up into the byers' driveway, knocking quickly on the door. will let her inside and she immediately went over to mike, asking if he was okay and looking at his wrist. she grimaced at the obviously bad breakage and gave him a quick hug.

"okay," she said. "we need to get going. are you coming, will?"

"uh, yeah." he nodded and followed the wheeler's outside—karen basically dragging mike behind her.

they got to the hospital so quickly that will was surprised karen didn't get pulled over for speeding.

in the examination room, mike seemed rather restless. karen excused herself to go to the bathroom while they waited for the doctor to return. that just mike even more restless.

"you okay?" will asked, sitting on the bed beside mike.

"yeah," mike lied. it was obvious that he was lying.

"no. you're really restless," will said.

"i don't like hospitals. they scare me. plus, the last time i was here was when you were in a hospital bed, recovering from being in the upside down. i don't know. it's dumb."

"no, it's not dumb, mike." will felt his heart skip a beat knowing that him being in a hospital bed worried mike.

"okay," he said quietly. after that, they sat quietly for a few seconds until mike hesitantly spoke up. "hey will?"

"yeah?"

"c-can you, uhm, can you h-hold my hand?" mike's voice was shaky. will looked at his face and saw that mike was awfully pale. will didn't realise how scared he actually was.

"of course." will gave him a small smile and softly grabbed mike's uninjured hand.

mike intertwined their fingers.

author's note
mike = gay and that's the tea

3:34pm — 21 november 2019